Anyone seen a Valiant 40?

[tracker_46]

Greetings,
I currently co-own a Columbia 26 mkII with a good buddy of mine. We both live in Honolulu and for the past year and a half have been cruising it around to the various other islands, Molokai, Lanai, Kauai, etc. We've both just graduated college and are about to set our long-awaited plans into motion by buying a 40 footer on the west coast and sailing it back to Hawaii. Provided we find a boat and all goes well over the next year or so, we will then take off for the south pacific and hopefully around the world. We've been working hard, building our skills, navigation, seamanship, general cruising savvy, etc with our Columbia and our inter-island trips.. We've also been doing a lot of reading and talking with experienced cruisers.
The main topic of this post is our upcoming purchase of a boat. We have been saving money (believe me, that is hard while in college) and have lined up a loan. Our budget is somewhere in the 50-70K range. After doing a lot of research, we've narrowed down the selection (but not limited it to): Valiant, Westsail, Tayana, Hans Christian, and a few others of similar stature. Ideally, we would like to find a Valiant 40. Due to the blistering problems that some of them have, we've been told that they can sometimes sell for quite cheap. I was told by a well-informed Valiant owner that the blistering does not affect the hull structurally in any way- that these boats just look ugly because you can't keep a coat of paint on them. Is this true? Is the blistering anything I should worry about affecting the integrity of the boat? I'd like another opinion.
Secondly, I'd just like to put a word out to any of you that are tapped into the west coast used boat market (not necessarily brokerage), that if you do see any Valiants or other similar boats up for sale in our price range, (maybe from an obscure private seller, or just an unadvertised boat at your local marina) and if you do happen to remember this post, perhaps you could contact me about it.. We are planning on making a trip up the west coast in September, but I would be open to anything that is up for sale at the present time too. I would be totally open to any other suggestions you might have regarding boat selection, etc. If you know of any other models that are bulletproof world-cruisers that I have overlooked, I'd love to hear about them!
Thanks to anyone that reads this
Kevin

[Paul L]

Take a look at yatchworld.com for listed Valiants. I think you'll find the blistered boats more in the US$110k range. Of the boats you listed, the Valiant 40 is by far the highest performance. It would make a great cruising boat for you guys if you could afford it.

[2divers]

We went and visited the Valiant factory here in Texas a couple of months ago. the resin issues occured around hull numbers 120 to 249 roughly dating in boats from 1976 to 1981. They figured it out and changed back to a better resin. If you need some info on any particular vessel call the factory They will be very helpful and can give you all the original specs and info on that particualr boat.

2divers